Thursday, May 10, 2007

In the area of the boardwalk at Magee Marsh, plus nearby areas of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, the status of the migration today (Thursday May 10) was about as expected: numbers had dropped from yesterday's huge peak, but there was still excellent variety. I was mostly birding other areas this morning so I was only at the boardwalk itself for a little over an hour, but I saw or heard 23 warbler species there and heard solid reports of five others. There was some turnover evident, with fewer thrushes and White-throated Sparrows around but more Wilson's Warblers than yesterday; but otherwise the species composition seemed similar, with very large numbers of Magnolia and Chestnut-sided Warblers and somewhat fewer Bay-breasted Warblers, and a good sprinkling of other things. More Eastern Kingbirds and other flycatchers seemed to have come in, and I saw a number of Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoos in the general area.

It appears that the winds will be light out of the northeast or north for the next few days so I don't expect another big influx of migrants soon. The numbers at the lakeshore migrant traps will probably drop off some more before the weekend. However, I hope this won't discourage anyone from coming out! The "leftovers" from this wave should linger, and should make for excellent variety and wonderful birding for the next several days.

Crane Creek, Magee Marsh, Black Swamp: where are we?

Birders all over North America have heard of "the boardwalk at Crane Creek" as a fabulous place to see migrants, while locals more often refer to "the Magee boardwalk." The confusion is understandable. The famous boardwalk is actually on the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, while the adjacent beach and half the parking lot were until recently part of Crane Creek State Park; the latter areas were turned over to the Ohio Division of Wildlife on May 1, 2008. The creek itself --Crane Creek--flows into Lake Erie just west of the boardwalk, on Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. Our bird observatory is named for the Great Black Swamp, which used to cover much of northwestern Ohio and northeastern Indiana. On these pages I refer to "the Crane Creek -Magee Region" as a general term for the Lake Erie shoreline between Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio.